Kendo Wife
by MakKeiUra
Summary: Continuing series about Motoko and Keitaro's life together as a married couple. Loving Discipline.
1. Lazy Afternoon - Heroes

Kendo Wife - Lazy Afternoon - "Heroes"

By MakKeiUra

Send all comments to makkeiura 

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu does. This is a non-for-profit work of fanfiction with no monies or profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This little series owes an obvious debt to Hawker-748's "Loss and Redemption." I must acknowledge that debt with humility and admiration. Random1377's "Steel Rose" also gets props, as well. I also wish to express thanks to Quis Custodiet. If Hawker-748 showed the way with his fics, QC pried the door back open with his. Obvious acknowledgement to Frank Herbert's classic novel "Dune" for an obvious line lift.

RATING WARNING: This story is rated M for Mature for a reason. Adult situations and content involving a clumsy apartment manager and a sword-swinging raven haired goddess lay ahead.

000

Motoko Aoyama slashed her fifty-seventh falling leaf into two with the Hina katana as she continued her afternoon practice. As was her custom, she had been at it for about a half an hour, and would continue for about another half an hour. At the sixty-second sliced leaf, Motoko checked the late afternoon sun as it arced its way across the early September sky. The day had been hot, but not dangerously so, and it being a Saturday that did portend a kind of leisure for most. Most, however, did not include the Aoyama's; Motoko and her husband, Keitaro.

'He is late for afternoon practice,' Motoko thought, then sheathing her blade, she walked over towards the railing. Soon, she found the subject of her thoughts. Motoko smiled, small but affectionate.

Keitaro was carefully finishing up his chore for the day; pulling weeds. From the looks of which, the job had been much more extensive than it had originally looked this morning. Motoko noted that in a few more minutes, her husband and apprentice would have his task complete and would be joining her for afternoon practice. Motoko silently returned to the spot she usually practiced at on the roof deck. She would have to increase the duration of the practice session this afternoon to take into account both her husband's lateness and his fatigue from his work around the Inn. While allowances would be made, the life of a kendoka demanded sacrifice.

Motoko resumed leaf slicing with the Hina blade. In time, Keitaro would have his own katana, but he still had much work to do before he got to that point. Let alone the Secret Techniques. Since he began as her apprentice, she had only allowed him shinai and occasionally a bokken. She had only just began preliminary discussions with Tsuruko about possibly reforging Shisui in the future for Keitaro. Her husband was making progress, significant progress even, but between his studies at Tokyo U, his duties as kanrinin and, of course, daily life at the Hinata it seemed like he hardly had time to sit down before it was time to stand up and walk or run to the next thing on his "to-do" list for the day. Motoko frowned, much was needed to forge a warrior. She knew Keitaro had it, and she had no objections to Keitaro's personal attentiveness in their marriage, but she wondered from time to time as his sensei if there would soon come a time if he would have to take a step back as kanrinin, or lessen his course work at Tokyo U to better manage his day. Motoko blushed, as it was some nights after making love, Keitaro was soundly asleep soon after he took her in his arms, whispered his gratitude and love for her, and then asked if he made her feel good.

Well, of course he did. Amazing even, but soon after a couple more words between them and gentle wishes of a good night and sweet dreams, she could tell he was out like a light. Sheer exhaustion, and not just because Motoko and his lovemaking could be classified as vigorous.

'The way of the sword is never easy,' Motoko thought. 'I will determine what needs to happen next.' Another leaf met its demise at the sharpened edge of the Hina katana.

000

"I apologize for being late, sensei," Keitaro, now dressed in hakama and gi, bowed deeply to Motoko. Motoko was still in the midst of leaf slashing with the Hina blade.

"I am aware of the chores you had undertaken, still you took a while to get changed and to come up here for practice." Motoko spoke clearly, but sternly. She gave Keitaro a knowing look, "what else is the matter, kohei?"

"I… guess, well… it is such a nice afternoon," Keitaro began.

"Yes, it is agreeable," Motoko said, her free arm making a short, almost dismissive wave to the late summer afternoon of Hinata City before them just beyond the deck stretching towards Sagami Bay. A light breeze helped make the sun more tolerable.

"And morning practice was strenuous and fulfilling," Keitaro continued.

"Fair words, and accurate too." Motoko sheathed the Hina katana in its scabbard.

"In full kendo armor too." Keitaro remembered just how much the men helmet had amplified the rising heat of the morning, radiating down throughout his whole body promising a difficult and sweaty day ahead.

"As we always do." Motoko nodded curtly, her signal for Keitaro to get to the damn point already.

"... is it really necessary for afternoon practice today?" Keitaro asked.

"*Necessary*?" Motoko eyebrows arched.

"I'm sorry, sensei," Keitaro sighed. "I guess I'm just not in the mood for practice this afternoon."

"Obviously," Motoko commented. "I thank you for your honesty, but I remind you that moods are thing for cattle and making love, not fighting!" Motoko had raised her voice a notch by the end of her statement.

"As I said," Keitaro bowed, "I am sorry, sensei."

"Not sorry enough!" Motoko moved over to the bench where their equipment sat. She retrieved a shinai, then took several steps back, keeping an eye on her student.

"Shinai!" Motoko directed.

Obediently, Keitaro retrieved the bamboo practice sword from the bench, then stood opposite from Motoko. Master and apprentice, the two raised their shinais.

"Begin!" Motoko commanded.

They began to spar. Motoko measured the intensity of Keitaro's strikes, and steadily increased the rate of her strikes to challenge her student more and more. Keitaro mostly blocked, but every so often a light strike hit Motoko on the forearm or hip. For his part, Keitaro frequently got a nice jab to his forearms, lower legs, or an even lighter one to his stomach.

Kendo wife and husband sparred for a solid hour, sweat drenching both of their gis and hakamas, and their legs and arms burning from the exertion. Motoko noted that Keitaro's fingers where they gripped the shinai were starting to grip harder and harder in order to maintain grip on the training weapon with the perspiration pouring from his fingers; it was at this moment that Motoko made her decision.

"Enough!" Motoko raised her hand up, her signal to him to take a rest. She laid down the shinai properly on the deck, then bowed to him. Keitaro returned the bow, breathing hard.

As Motoko went to the bench to retrieve two bottles of water from a small cooler, she mentally complimented her husband that he carefully and properly laid his shinai on the ground and remained standing, waiting for her.

Motoko returned, silently handing the cold bottle of water to Keitaro, then nodded her permission for them both to sit down. They sat across from each other in what could pass for a meditative pose if they were not gratefully drinking their bottles of water.

After a few moments of catching her breath, and taking a few more sips of water, Motoko spoke: "You fight when the need arises; no matter if you are tired or not."

"I understand, sensei. I apologize for my lack of attentiveness."

Motoko acknowledged this with an ever so slight nod.

The bottles of water were soon finished, and adhering to routine Motoko and Keitaro performed their ending meditation for a practice session. As their meditation proceeded, both noted the usual sounds of a late summer afternoon at the Hinata Inn: a stray bird song, the rustling of the leaves in the trees, Kitsune yelling at her precious race horses on the television to help her make rent without working overtime.

At once, by habit as well as almost by another sense, Motoko and Keitaro opened their eyes. The meditation was over. Silently, both of them rose and bowed to each other. Motoko turned, retrieved the Hina blade, and walked over to the stairs.

"I will see you at dinner, kohei."

"Yes, sensei. I will do better at practice tomorrow."

"We will speak after dinner regarding this, kohei." Seeing the slightly puzzled look on her husband's face, Motoko turned and descended the staircase. Keitaro simply turned around and began his usual ritual of cleaning up and putting away their equipment, as a proper student of the God's Cry School of Kendo should.

000

"Ah, good afternoon, Motoko-sempai!" Shinobu called out as she turned around slightly from the stove and the various pots she was tending to there.

"Good afternoon, Shinobu-chan." Motoko smiled a touch.

Motoko stopped in the kitchen for another cup of water before proceeding to the hot spring to freshen up before dinner. While she liked the larger bath that Keitaro had built for them soon after they were married, she still enjoyed the palatial enjoyment of the Hinata hot spring. Once Motoko had her water in hand, she noted the high school girl seemed to be preparing a larger meal than usual.

"Company tonight, Shinobu-chan?"

The girl instantly blushed, "Oh, Kosuke-kun and I are studying for exams tonight. So I figured…"

Motoko smiled, "say no more. Just remember what I, Kei-kun, and Naru-sempai have told you; even if she is away on vacation with Sakata-san."

Shinobu shyly nodded.

"And certainly not what I have told you!" Kitsune declared as she sauntered into the kitchen with her laptop, promptly sitting down at the small kitchen table in the corner where she usually did her work for the local newspapers.

"No teasing Kosuke-san like last time, Kitsune-san," Motoko shook her head. "The poor boy almost turned into a blubbering mess with your constant questions about his intentions towards our little Shinobu-chan."

"Just keepin' the boy on his toes!" Kitsune opened the laptop with a sigh. "Oh Typhoon Toshiro, could you have at least placed for me today? Now I have to do honest work!" She began pecking at the keyboard. "Well, at least it's quiet enough to work in the kitchen with Suu and Sara in Guam with Seta and Haruka."

Motoko nodded in agreement with the resident fox as she sipped some more water, then turned her attention back to Shinobu. "And this really is a bit of a large dinner even when expecting a guest, Shinobu-chan. Thank you for making extra for Kei-kun. He has had a hard day."

"I'll say," Kitsune chuckled, looking over the laptop's monitor at Motoko. "From the sounds outside, I almost thought you two were practicing something else again."

Motoko blushed, all at once pleasant memories came back to her of the last time Keitaro had accidentally pulled down her hakama *and* what she wore underneath. She sighed. "Kendo is very rigorous."

"If you could call it that," Kitsune replied with a leer. "Now you have a partner in Kendo as well as life and you just relish mixing business with pleasure."

Motoko gave the freelancer an even look. "Kei-kun knew he was taking on a way of life when we began seeing each other; I told him it would not be easy."

"He… does seem very busy a lot of the times," Shinobu commented.

Motoko nodded. "That will be addressed, Shinobu-chan. I thank you for your care and concern." Motoko then washed out her cup, then placed it on the dish rack to dry.

"Ladies, see you at dinner." Motoko bowed to them each and then turned to exit the kitchen when a look in Kitsune's eye stopped her.

"Yes, Kitsune-san?"

"All joking aside, Motoko," Kitsune drawled smoothly, "how can you order him around from sunrise to sunset and then it's all lovey-dovey until the next day?"

"... I cannot imagine how difficult it is for him, Motoko-sempai," Shinobu was looking at her now too, Motoko realized. "Is this really what he had in mind when you first started seeing each other?"

Kitsune snapped a finger in Motoko's direction. "Yeah, I bet Keitaro really said, 'train me day and night, Motoko-chan, even though I'll likely never be any where near your level…"

Motoko looked down for a moment, feeling a slight sting at the other girls' insinuations. She could just walk out of the room now in silence. It really was none of their business after all. In fact, she could just say that. But these were her friends-his friends too. Then she looked up to gaze at Kitsune in the eyes, and then to Shinobu.

Motoko sighed, then a slight smile graced her lips as she remembered. "Kei-kun told me he wanted to be a hero."

000

Thirteen months earlier…

Motoko had arrived home after her after school college entrance exam prep classes one day, and noticed right away that everyone was out doing whatever mundane, fun, or pressing need was being fulfilled that day. Immediately realizing that there would be no need to even announce her return once she entered the front door of the Hinata, Motoko had silently taken off her shoes, put on her house slippers, and proceeded upstairs to her room in order to change for her afternoon practice.

She stopped. Had she just heard something? Yes, she had. Music. Not just the ordinary background music of life one would expect from the radio being carelessly left on, or the television, this was different. The music was familiar. Motoko listened a bit longer, then correctly placed where the sounds were coming from. The manager's room. Motoko proceeded in that direction. At first, she had thought that Keitaro had been out attending class, or doing something else that required his attention as manager. He had been unusually dedicated to keeping himself occupied in the months since his time in America with Seta-sensei on Keitaro's first archeological dig.

'That's right, he left just after Naru-san told him she wanted him as a brother, and not as her boyfriend,' Motoko's memory helpfully jabbed at her as she closed in on her target. The simple door marked, "Manager." Motoko listened. Yes, she remembered the song well enough. She had heard it often enough coming from Tsuruko's room growing up. That had been notable in and of itself as one of Tsuruko Aoyama's few concessions to modernity and anything not Japanese.

Motoko knocked three times on the door, clearing her throat. "Urashima-san? Are you there?"

A brief shuffling around in the room, then a hasty lowering of the volume on Keitaro's stereo. "Motoko-chan? Is there something I can help you with?"

Motoko hesitated briefly. Well, she had already announced her presence, and here she was at his door, so she might as well ask.

"May I come in?"

"S-sure," Keitaro answered. She heard him pat-pat over to the door, then he slid it open. Keitaro stood there dressed in the usual ratty old clothes he wore when he was cleaning. Right beside him in the room was Keitaro's cleaning equipment, with the usual implements he used for dusting. Motoko realized that Keitaro had been cleaning his room. Perfectly normal and commendable. Why did she need to see him in his room? Certainly why did she need to do that when no one else was home?

Silently, Motoko walked into the room, and slide the door closed behind her. For a moment she regarded Keitaro silently, then: "David Bowie's 'Heroes'?"

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry, was the stereo too loud?"

"No," Motoko shook her head. "Why… that song, Urashima-san?"

"I like it."

"Why do you like it?"

Keitaro looked down for a moment, then back up to the kendo girl in his room. "Because when I was little I always wanted to be a hero, of some kind." He chuckled, blushing a bit. "You know, something silly like that."

Motoko looked down. "I do not think it is silly if it comes from an honest place, Urashima-san," Motoko stated solemnly. "I heard you singing. Even with your lack of skill with the English language, I could tell you were reaching for something deeper."

"It… it's just a song, Motoko-chan," Keitaro replied, a bit nervous. What was Motoko getting at? Over the past few months she had started to ask more questions of him, or just simply seemed interested in talking even if it was about completely mundane topics like his course work for Seta or what paint choices fit the Hinata's unique building personality. "That's all it is, Motoko-chan," Keitaro continued. "Just a song I like for a silly reason."

"Not when it clearly means this much to you." Motoko was not letting this slide. "You do not sing out loud like that to other songs in any language." She gave him an even stare, hard and intense. "I will only ask this question once, Urashima-san. Do you want to be a hero?"

He thought about it for a moment. It would be so easy to just clam up and dismiss this, but the look in Motoko's eyes compelled Keitaro to take a moment, close his eyes…

...and dream.

"Yes, I do." Keitaro answered instinctively.

"Why?"

Keitaro looked down, and was silent for a long moment. Then he sighed as he raised his eyes to meet hers. "Because whenever one of Suu's inventions goes haywire, or when renegade treasure hunters try to steal some of Seta-sensei's artifacts, or the occasional groper tries to molest one of you, it just feels like all I can do is run away, take a lot of hits, and then bounce back for more. I can't attack like you, Naru-chan, Seta-sensei or even Kanako-chan can."

"Why did you not take up Seta-sensei's offer of training in Jeet Kune Do?" Motoko asked.

"You ever try picking up a pencil and writing with the wrong hand?"

Motoko considered this for a moment. "I understand," she said. "It just did not fit."

"No," Keitaro sighed. "Something was missing." Keitaro found himself looking at Motoko intently in that moment, finding understanding about this curious feeling he felt himself struggling with more and more lately.

Motoko's eyes gazed into his, looking deeply into them. "Very well, it is decided then. You will meet me on the deck at dawn; do *not* be late. We will begin your training. Wear something you do not mind getting damaged or destroyed. "

The next morning, after Keitaro had endured a crash-course in beginning God's Cry Kendo, he knelt sweating profusely, his clothes tattered, his body covered in various light hits that he knew would bruise in the days to come. Keitaro's breathing was labored as Motoko stood above him with her favorite practice shinai in her right hand, her left hand reaching out to him.

"How do you feel, kohei?" Motoko had asked.

"... beautiful, sensei." Keitaro rasped.

"Do you want more?" Motoko smiled.

"More than anything!"

Later on that night as he soaked in his small bath, Keitaro realized that that had been their first date.

This realization was confirmed the next night after afternoon practice when Motoko requested permission to visit the room of her new student. Once the kendo girl had slid the door shut, she began to carefully scan the room, observing every minute detail. Keitaro had silently stood, almost at attention, waiting. Finally, he asked if his sensei would like some tea. She had silently nodded that she would. When Motoko had seated herself at Keitaro's kotatsu, she began to sip the tea after indicating for Keitaro to also sit down. Finally, Motoko set her cup down.

"Kohei, I need you to be completely open with me." Motoko said slowly.

"Sure, sensei." Keitaro replied.

"Keitaro-kun…" Motoko said, suddenly uncertain, blushing a bit at using his given name in such a familiar way. "I am going to look through all of your personal belongings."

"Um… why, if I may ask, sensei?" Keitaro felt more bewildered by the request than anything else.

"I need to be sure." Motoko said simply.

Keitaro was about to ask for what she needed to be sure of, but the look on Motoko's face told him that perhaps it would be best to simply trust her.

"Go right ahead, Motoko-sensei."

So for the next hour Motoko carefully went through all of Keitaro's personal possessions . There wasn't much, but Motoko was meticulous. With Motoko's permission Keitaro studied math while Motoko did this. Silently, Keitaro made some more tea, which Motoko carefully accepted as she started leafing through Keitaro's books, magazines, and sketchbooks.

"Kohei?"

"Yes, sensei?"

Motoko pushed his sketchbook towards him (on the page was a young woman with a bikini on), a magazine of elegant lingerie, and a fairly simple old bound book that the old-timers would have termed a marriage manual. "Are these the extent of the material you have on these topics in your possession?"

"Yes, sensei." Keitaro blushed.

All at once, her decision was made. 'I will storm the castle,' Motoko thought.

Motoko picked up the sketchbook and magazine and slide them to the corner of the table. She then sat with her hands folded in her lap in front of her. "Am I not…" her brow furrowed as she searched for the word, "better?"

Keitaro blushed even deeper. "Yes," he stated with an edge of steel in his voice.

"Do you wish to be with me as both student and…" Motoko once again found herself searching for the right word, "boyfriend?"

"Yes, I do." Keitaro nodded for each word. He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry despite the tea he had just consumed.

Motoko placed one hand on the top of the kotatsu, facing towards where Keitaro had his hand. "... then that is the way it shall be."

Gulping almost audibly, Keitaro slowly reached out his hand to touch Motoko's. A part of him was still scared that she would recoil once his hand made contact, or worse slap him. Once his hands touched the top of Motoko's fingers, and he noted the pleased expression on her face, Keitaro took the initiative and placed his whole hand over hers. This soon became a full hand-clasp as their eyes were drawn from the bodily contact between them up to each other's faces.

The next day prior to their next training session, Motoko stated the rules: Dawn to dusk, sensei and kohei, dusk to dawn Motoko-chan and Kei-kun. Meal times would be a break from the rules, but not to excess. Motoko would also be welcome in Keitaro's room at any time to make certain there were no illicit influences creeping into his life distracting him away from the path of the sword or her. In return, Motoko admitted her secret hobby; reading and writing romance stories and also her door was open to him whenever he needed either his sensei or his Motoko-chan. Granted, a lot of the times Keitaro came to her door at night with a sleeping Kaolla Suu wrapped around his neck and simply needed assistance prying her loose. Then there were the (many) times that Suu insisted on a giant slumber party with Sara and Shinobu. Nights like that it was fortunate for Motoko and Keitaro to even have time to share a quiet moment holding hands. On nights that were more tranquil, Keitaro sketched and Motoko wrote. Then they would examine each other's work. Soon, Motoko blushingly admitted that some of her stories beared a striking similarity to reality; especially the one about the conquering Lady Samurai and the shy, virginal, unmarried owner of an Inn that the samurai's army had requisitioned for the Daimyo's war effort and, as the samurai had informed the Innkeeper, it is his responsibility to tend to her needs personally during her stay, starting with a goodnight kiss.

Motoko also stressed simplicity in his lifestyle. Not that Keitaro was extravagant before, but she emphasized the honesty and frugality of a true samurai. Taking this advice, Keitaro started to carefully scrutinize how he spent the scant few extra monies he had after paying for the Inn's expenses and basic necessities at the end of the week. His clothes became simpler, and he took up Motoko's habit of frequently wearing a gi and hakama. For her part, Motoko diversified her wardrobe somewhat outside of the excuse of weather conditions. On the occasion of her nineteenth birthday, Keitaro had given her a white silk blouse and black jeans for more casual occasions. She also discovered an increasing fondness for action-adventure manga to compliment her existing interest in romance novels. Motoko also found that she grew to enjoy Keitaro's photo-sticker hobby. Eventually, she started her own collection, though she confounded Keitaro with her odd choice of unique eye-wear in each photo sticker, the latest being her insistence on the classic American Groucho Marx glasses complete with fake nose and moustache.

After a month, Motoko asked Keitaro how he felt about her presence in his life decision-making, he simply replied: "Safe."

Not that Keitaro was free from all decision making, managing the particulars of the Inn, or his Tokyo U coursework, but Motoko's teaching gave him an added perspective and goal with which to make those decisions. Keitaro also insisted that he, Naru, and Mutsumi assist her in preparing for the university entrance examinations that were to occur just before Motoko's high school graduation. And, just barely, she made it into Tokyo U on her first try. For her part, Motoko found that Keitaro's clumsiness lessened as she focused on basic stances and kata's endlessly, along with a strict daily training schedule for him. For all the other times that Keitaro accidentally pulled down her hakama, Motoko simply took to wearing loose pajama pants underneath.

000

Keitaro sat in his and Motoko's private bath, stretching out as he allowed his aching muscles to relax after his day. Once again, he noted that his glasses were in their case sitting on a small stool next to the wall. Mentally, he totalled up all he had done this Saturday, and decided to call it a success. Even with the afternoon practice that his body protested against, Keitaro was proud that he had taken his sensei and wife's rebuke without any resentment; he simply absorbed the lesson that was being taught. Keitaro reached up his arms as he looked out at the balcony as the evening sky continued its march until evening, he began to mentally prepare himself for tomorrow. It being a Sunday, there would still be training and study, but grocery shopping in the city with Motoko would take the place of chores. He blushed, frequently Sunday also meant a mid-morning break after practice that more often than not resulted in him and Motoko making love and then a welcome nap afterwards.

His mind wandered as he shut his eyes. Thirteen months since his life changed. It was three months after that fateful day that Motoko asked him if he wanted to be a hero that he had confessed his love for Motoko, three months after that he proposed marriage, a month after that they were married (but not before Tsuruko had gifted them with a new edition of a marriage manual; the illustrations inside completely scandalizing both Motoko and Keitaro), and now that was six months ago. In just the past two months, Keitaro and Motoko had accompanied Tsuruko and her husband Mitsuru (though Tsuruko was primarily along in an advisory/teacher role) on a God's Cry School assignment to help a family that had been plagued by a hostile spirit and Motoko had whispered in his ear before bed one night that she had stopped birth control and when the time came, Tsuruko had agreed to assist with his further training.

Keitaro blushed, remembering the conversation he and Motoko had prior to their marriage about children.

"You are fine with children whenever I decide, is that correct?" She had said, a hint of pleased surprise in her eyes.

"Yeah. I mean, sure I'd love to hear and talk about when you think is the best time, of course, but I trust you." He had smiled brightly at her.

"I know you trust me, Kei-kun. But it is a serious matter."

"Look… Motoko-chan. I know how much of a change it was for you to even tolerate me, then take me on as an apprentice, realizing you liked me and wanted to date me… love me... let alone be my wife," Keitaro gazed into her eyes. "You have already given me so much, and still want to give more. How can I refuse your good judgment in that area?"

After that, for the second time in her life, Motoko Aoyama actually *glomped* someone.

Keitaro smiled, opening his eyes as he relaxed, reminiscing about the soft yet hard make-out session that had followed. 'Well, nowadays we get to enjoy so much more…'

Almost in answer to that thought, an arm wrapped around his shoulders. "A yen for your thoughts, Kei-kun?"

Keitaro smiled warmly. "Hey, Motoko-chan. Am I late for dinner?"

"Shinobu-chan said about forty minutes." Her fingers traipsed their way across Keitaro's shoulders. "So we have some time."

Keitaro being Keitaro after such a hard Saturday demanding such focus and dedication, his mind choose that moment to blank completely. "A… quick bath?" he ventured after a moment of gazing at his beautiful raven haired wife with a happy, dumb look on his face.

Motoko sighed. Some things never changed. "No, the discussion we are supposed to have after dinner."

"Moving up the schedule, then." Keitaro nodded. "Okay."

"You are working yourself too hard, Kei-kun."

"I'm getting everything done." Keitaro shrugged.

"Barely, while running yourself ragged." Motoko ran her fingers along Keitaro's neck and shoulders, beginning a soft kneading motion.

"I get through the day..."

"Without an ounce of energy left if the need arose for more from you." Motoko said with a hint of steel to go along with the slightly increasing motions of her fingers on his shoulders.

"I cannot neglect my responsibilities, Motoko-chan." Keitaro let out an involuntary moan as he relaxed into his wife's ministrations.

"Nor am I asking you to," Motoko hummed. "But there are scheduling alternatives…"

"You mean, besides turning the Inn over to Kanako-chan?" Keitaro smirked.

"*Anything* but that." Motoko gave Keitaro an ever so slight pinch just above his shoulder blades.

"Ow!" Keitaro's winced, chuckling, then looked down. "I guess… it might be time to go part-time at Tokyo U. Seta-sensei said I could if I needed to."

"I think that would be prudent decision on your part, Kei-kun."

"Okay, I'll call him tomorrow on his satellite phone and then set up a meeting with Dean Matsui. Most of this term's credits can be wrapped up in about a month." Keitaro thought out loud.

"And you can rearrange the maintenance schedule around the Inn until the lighter course load comes around." Motoko said now fully massaged her husband's shoulders.

"Y-yes, I can do that, Motoko-chan..."

"That's an order from both sensei and wife." Motoko raised her tone.

"I understand… thank you." Keitaro raised his hand out of the water and up to Motoko's to squeeze it. "I love you, Motoko-chan."

"I love you too, Kei-kun." Motoko smiled, blushing at the warmth radiating from her husband's hand on hers. Even after all the times they've done something so simple, it still stunned her sometimes.

"... there is something else." Keitaro said.

"Oh?"

"It's about today. At practice, sensei." He sighed, a sound of defeat.

"Well, I'd rather you told me first as your wife."

"Okay, Motoko-chan." Keitaro did smile at that. He thought for a moment, "am I ever going to have the kind of control you have? Or anything close to it?"

"You have only just started."

"I know, and I can see the progress I've made," Keitaro shrugged. "But today I barely forced myself to get up there for afternoon practice, I was so exhausted. I knew I was failing as a warrior…"

"I could tell that when you tried to talk me out of afternoon practice," Motoko said evenly. "Thus, your lesson for today."

Keitaro winced as, as if the emphasize the point, Motoko kneaded his shoulders harder, working out the tension.

"I just wonder if I'll ever be a tenth as good as you are. I don't mean just with a blade, but with how you are ready at any moment for whatever might come your way. Let alone the Secret Techniques." Keitaro said. Then, mentally an unspoken thought reared its head. 'Well, unless there's turtles involved,' Keitaro thought, making a supreme effort to keep his lips tightly shut lest he accidentally voice it.

"I told you it would be a lifelong journey; a quest." Motoko said quietly. "God's Cry and the Aoyama clan mission is to fight supernatural evils and for earthly justice."

"I just hope and pray I will someday be strong enough to help you on that quest…" Keitaro said, looking down. "Today, I was not strong..."

"You were strong when you helped Kenji-san." Motoko reminded Keitaro firmly.

Keitaro nodded slowly. The family with the evil spirit, the Kazukos, had been afflicted with a spirit in their family home for around two years with encounters with the spirit starting off fairly benign and mischievous, but progressively growing more hostile and disruptive to the family's ordinary life. Moments of quiet were so few and far between that even Mrs. Kazuko's best friend had witnessed the supernatural events by just talking to her friend over the phone.

Tsuruko, Mitsuru, Motoko and Keitaro spent barely an entire night in the house to exorcise and purify the spirit, but it seemed much longer. Even after observing the various spiritual disturbances and questioning the family, the group's attempts to find a way to attack the demon were coming up fruitless. The group was resigning themselves to a long and difficult exorcism stay in the house when, through Keitaro's clumsiness, luck had smiled on the group when he tripped on the floor, knocking down a framed family portrait in the bedroom of the eldest son, twenty-one year old Kenji Kazuko. The portrait broke, and amid Keitaro's customary storm of apologies, he noticed several pictures hidden behind the smiling Kazuko family portrait. The pictures were several doubles of photo album pictures that featured, in part, but folded over to showcase, Mrs. Kazuko's best friend Natsuko. That discovery on Keitaro's part had broken the logjam in the group's investigations of the spirit and the reason for its underlying harassment of the family. As Tsuruko pointed out, once they knew the reason why, Mitsuru could begin a successful exorcism with Motoko covering him from any spiritual attacks. The group had sat down with the Kazuko family, and after some emotional questions and answers, the truth was found out.

Kenji was not-so-secretly in love with Natsuko and had been for years. Natsuko was engaged to be married to another man. Kenji had admitted his feelings directly to Natsuko and also let them be known to his parents on more than one occasion in unambiguous terms.

This reality, while painful, would ordinarily simply be dealt with in the way people usually do in situations like that; by living and doing the best they could. Kenji did not hold a grudge for Natsuko marrying, and wished her well. While bittersweet, he had no problem attending the wedding. This should have been the end of the situation, but as Keitaro pointed out, this is not what the Kazukos and Natsuko did. Instead, they ignored Kenji's admission of love and when Tsuruko pressed them on their view of the revelation that should not have been a revelation, the Kazukos' viewed it at most as an embarrassing, immature inconvenience to Kenji fully and enthusiastically helping Natsuko's wedding preparations and helping Natsuko's fiance get their future home ready to be moved into.

As Tsuruko had told the Kazukos with that ever-present coy smile on her face. "Your denial of your son's honest expression of his feelings caused this spirit to infest your home. Despair, resentment, and repression are oftentimes too tempting for evil spirits to pass up. Especially in those with great mental and spiritual strength, but not the training to guard against such infestation. "

Predictably, perhaps, the parents blamed their son. Motoko watched proudly as Keitaro stood close by Kenji, telling his parents their son had no idea this would happen, had no idea until now of his connection to the spirit realm, and more importantly did not wish for this to happen in the first place. Furthermore the idea that Kenji should be ashamed for falling in love and speaking of it to those it concerned was just plain dumb and dishonorable.

Mr. Kazuko had stood up in indignation, shouting at Mitsuru and Tsuruko to force an apology from Keitaro. They had laughed in response. Mrs. Kazuko then turned to Motoko, saying she should be ashamed of the idiotic apprentice she had married. Motoko glared at Mrs. Kazuko and replied that she's proud of him and they are fortunate that it is him criticizing them and not her, her big sister, or her brother in law. For Keitaro let his compassion guide him first and foremost in all dealings.

Keitaro sighed, "I hope Kenji-san will be all right."

"We gave him the money his parents had given us for exorcising the spirit." Motoko reassured him. "And we gave him the directions and contact information to Mitsuru's friend in Hokkaido. I have heard of Ishijima-sensei; he's very good at teaching control of mental and spiritual abilities."

"Yeah, I know." Keitaro yawned a bit. "I just wish I had shown the same strength today

that I did with him."

"But you took the lesson being taught earlier today with resilience and humility." Motoko smiled. "The rest will come in time, Kei-kun. Trust and listen to your sensei." She stopped massaging his shoulders, then pat-patted his head. "Now, stand up and let me make sure you are not getting any… training scars." Keitaro heard the smirk in Motoko's voice.

Obediently, Keitaro stood up. Smoothly, Motoko's firm but silky hands ran up and down Keitaro's sides, his hips, backside, and down his legs. "Good, very good," Motoko whispered. "Turn around."

Keitaro did as instructed, and soon found his lips locked securely with Motoko's. Instinctively, his hands reached over the wooden side of the bath to run around Motoko's sides, and up her back, all around the simple light green evening kimono that she put on after her bath in the main hot spring. His hands soon found their way underneath, wandering over her chest wrappings, then they rose up to her shoulders, lifting and letting the kimono pool to the floor around Motoko's feet. Now Keitaro reached into his wife and sensei's luxurious raven hair, running his fingers through them as they continued to kiss. He could smell the pleasant scent of her freshly washed hair.

Motoko moaned, one of her hands running up and down her husband and student's back as her other hand reached up to where her chest bindings began as she made her best effort to get the traditional undergarment off of her as soon as possible. Soon, with Keitaro's assistance, the bandages were pooled in ribbons around Motoko's kimono. His hands, still mediating between his male needs and desires, and also his earnest desire to please her, and to put her suggestions into use, worked and massaged their way around her chest, practicing and learning.

'The hands I have trained.' Motoko thought absently as she moaned, kissing Keitaro harder.

"Want another bath, Motoko-chan?" Keitaro asked amid his kisses, a smile on his lips as they started to trace the outline of her chin, questing lower to lathe attention on Motoko's neck.

"Y-yes, Kei-kun!"

"You're still a little bit overdressed.." Keitaro smirked as he ran his hands down her lower back, resting briefly on her panty-covered bottom, starting to run his fingers beneath the waistband ever so slightly…

"Mmmm, Kei…" Motoko moaned, her tongue playing with his.

… with a fairly skillful play of fingers of both hands Keitaro managed to get Motoko's underwear off of her shapely bottom and down her legs and pooled on the floor at her feet with a helpful little assist from Motoko successfully anticipating Keitaro's move and moving her body accordingly. Soon, skillfully with Keitaro's help, Motoko got herself into the bath and then both lovers were entwined in each other's arms, sending small waves over the brim of the wooden bath Keitaro had carefully constructed. He picked his wife up in his arms, assisted by the water, and was very pleased to find that Motoko had opened her legs in greeting for him as he set her up against the wall of the bath.

"K-Kei-taro..! Oh! Ah!... I love you!" she whispered huskily as she felt him stiffening against her inner thigh, and felt his lips on her neck, sucking at the flesh greedily.

"I love you, my wife… my sensei!" then almost to punctuate the statement, Keitaro and Motoko were one. Motoko moaned sharply, her back arching against the wooden bath as she instinctively encircled her arms around Keitaro's back more, her fingernails just digging in so on Keitaro's skin. They moved together now, thrashing and sloshing the bath water around, small waves crashing into the entwined husband and wife and onto the deck outside the bath. Keitaro moaned, completely enraptured with the feelings of being inside his wife, kissing her, caressing her, and now it was time for something more…

It never failed to take her by rapturous surprise whenever her apprentice, did this, but as Motoko arched her back to enjoy another wave of pleasure as the two made love, she felt Keitaro's skillful fingers darting down where they were connected as husband and wife, and soon those ever well-trained digits were beginning a well coordinated attack on a very sensitive bud; an attack that always pierced her inner defenses…

Keitaro felt Motoko clench around him, her gritted his teeth in pleasure at the almost electric feelings of pleasure it evoked as he moved faster, more ragged, harder against Motoko as he gave in to the ages old rhythm of man and woman, husband and wife, and now sensei and apprentice together. All the while, his disciplined fingers continued to drum beneath the water against Motoko's womanly flower. Precise control was practiced by Keitaro as he felt his peak building, and also moved his fingers in quicker motions to help his wife met the cresting wave that started to crash into him...

"Mo-mo-motoko-chan…!" Keitaro hissed, spending himself deep within her.

Motoko let out a short, but husky shriek as she felt her own pleasure collide with her. Indeed, it almost felt like a refreshing, life giving blast of air was enveloping them as more water rippled and kissed the entwined lovers and splashed onto the floor. "K-keitaro-kun!" Below the water of the bath, her legs wrapped around husband's, soon, knowing his strength was about to give out, Motoko supported his weight with her arms as they embraced each other in the cooling bath.

As their mingled breath slowly started to catch up with the married kendo couple, Motoko regarded her husband as he rested his sweaty brow against her forehead gently. 'Perhaps a baby this time…'

000

Kitsune closed her laptop, looking up from where she sat at the kitchen table. Her fox eyes peered out the window across the room. She had seen something. Slowly rising from her seat, she stretched for a moment, then strode across the empty kitchen towards the door to the HInata's backyard. Shinobu had excused herself from the quietly cooking meal for a scant few moments to use the restroom before her Kosuke-kun arrived.

Kitsune opened the door, scanning the green, freshly weeded back yard until her eyes happened on the only thing that was out of place. A bucket, and what appeared to be some white bandages. She grinned, soon she had collected the two out of place items and set them back inside on an empty chair. Kitsune sauntered to the refrigerator, retrieved a can of beer, opened it, and took a long sip.

'Really,' she thought, 'second time this week. Can't be a coincidence… only a strong gale of wind could have blown those down. Looks like Motoko is going to need Tsuruko-sama's help with teaching Keitaro how to control those funky ki blasts sooner rather than later.' The fox grinned, already making plans to be a fly on the wall for those conversations, and also how best to tease the couple when they finally made it down for dinner.

END

000

AFTERWARD: Kendo Wife is intended to be a loose, but connected and continuing series of stories about Keitaro and Motoko's life together. I started off with the idea of instead of Motoko going through a drastic "thawing" that would result in a relationship between her and Keitaro, I decided to depict Motoko coming to a few different conclusions. First one being that Keitaro is not a pervert, the second being that not all men are scum, and the third one being that it is her (and also Keitaro's) mission in life to stand as examples to men and women on how to live and lead honorable lives while standing against true perversions, evil spirits, and assholes in general.

The series is not intended to be linear in any way, so an installment might take place in the past, or the future, or there may even be a tangent of some kind. For example, I might detail more the Kazuko mission, or one of Motoko's romance stories. While lime/lemon content is certainly a possibility, I am not making it an obligation.

Finally, I make no apologies for making Tsuruko into a David Bowie fan.

In any event, I hope this has been appreciated and enjoyed. See you next time! Thanks for reading!


	2. Kendo Wife - Chapter 2 - Extravagance?

Kendo Wife - "Extravangance?" - "To Be A Lover"

By MakKeiUra

Send all comments to makkeiura 

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu does. This is a non-for-profit work of fanfiction with no monies or profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This little series owes an obvious debt to Hawker-748's "Loss and Redemption." I must acknowledge that debt with humility and admiration. Random1377's "Steel Rose" also gets props, as well. I also wish to express thanks to Quis Custodiet. If Hawker-748 showed the way with his fics, QC pried the door back open with his. Acknowledgement to Frank Herbert's classic novel "Dune" for an obvious line lift.

RATING WARNING: This story is rated M for Mature for a reason. Adult situations and content involving a clumsy apartment manager and a sword-swinging raven haired goddess lay ahead.

000

Two weeks after Motoko and Keitaro have been married…

Hinata City...

The middle of the month of March…

000

Motoko carefully put the shoes that she had just tried on back on the store rack, unsatisfied. Either the shoes she found comfortable were too gaudy to even consider being seen in public with, or the shoes were acceptable attire but torture on the feet. Motoko was used to putting her feet through harsh treatment, that was just part of being, as her friends had dubbed her, the "kendo girl" but she refused to accept callouses on her feet from something so simple as shopping with her husband while wearing casual clothes.

'If Kei-kun was here now, he would be trying so valiantly to stifle a yawn,' Motoko thought with a smile. But today Keitaro was repairing some stressed boards on the Hinata Inn's deck. The boards had started to peel and shifted slightly when walked on. This had actually been discovered by the couple during training.

She tried on another pair. No luck. Motoko put that pair back, and started to walk towards the front entrance of the store. She started to reflect that perhaps her sister was right to rely exclusively on traditional footwear unless she is going to be walking through a swamp or scaling the side of a mountain.

'Speaking of traditional clothing, or the lack of it…' Motoko's eyes were caught by a sign (many of them, actually) at the front of the Ladies Intimate Apparel section. Motoko stopped, while she was not in any pressing need to replace anything, she looked. Her needs were simple, but she did try to take a glance at what was being offered in stores from time to time. It certainly helped that she only bought panties, the bandages for her breasts she had shipped from home in Kyoto by her mother, and she only owned two plain full-style bra; one white and one black. Be that as it may, Motoko and Keitaro both agreed on being dedicated deal-hunters and coupon-cutters, so the signs' promises of massive savings piqued her curiosity.

Motoko took her mobile phone out of her pocket, a simple flip-phone commonly mocked by "with it" residents of Tokyo as something for children or senior citizens, but in her opinion, it suited her needs just fine. The time read 10:34 AM, plenty of time to make it back to the Inn in time for lunch with her husband-apprentice and the residents who would be around at that time of day on this Sunday. Motoko mentally reviewed her plans for the night. Since Keitaro was unable to join her on their new Sunday ritual of shopping, lunch in the city, and then usually some lovemaking and a nap prior to afternoon practice so he could fix those deck boards, Motoko decided that tonight she and Keitaro would go out. Motoko had in mind a karaoke parlor, where they would order something good to eat and drink, and belt out some 70s and 80s pop idol hits for bragging rights before getting some photo stickers. Motoko grinned to herself, she also had special plans for her husband tonight once the door to the Manager's and Kendo Wife's room was slid shut and locked.

In the immediate short term, though she would never admit this to anyone else, Motoko Aoyama was bored, so she strolled into the Intimate Apparel section and began to look around at the various panty displays half-heartedly. Almost all of them were either things she already had, but not in her favored colors (white or black), or were too extravagant for a wise and frugal kendoka. And still others were just plain vulgar and completely unacceptable.

Motoko was about to leave, when a display drew her attention. The lingerie on the display mannequin was white silk, but bordered with red lacey frills. What drew her attention the most was the bra. It matched, but while Motoko did own two plain bras for when binding her chest was impractical and not just inconvenient, she had never before considered purchasing one so… girly. It was not just the frills, which even lovingly accentuated the bra straps, it was the way the cups were fashioned to show and accentuate cleavage but also the red bow in the middle of the cups; matching the one at the summit of the panties, as well.

But, as Motoko's eyes danced over the lingerie, the most notable feature on the panties was the bright red, lacey opening that were in a very obvious area on the front of the panties. The intention was obvious. If Keitaro had been there with her, his blush would have matched the red of the lace on the lingerie.

She contemplated the mannequin modeling the lingerie. It was wholly unnecessary, she did not need it. The underwear she currently had was adequate, and she did not need frilly underwear to entice her husband. No her husband and apprentice was always looking at her with loving, desirous eyes, even when she compelled obedience and attention from him during their kendo practice. But… well, he did respond with obedience to her stated preference for him to only wear white or black boxer shorts, did he not? Especially those wonderful sheer white cotton ones with the fly that never quite closes…

Motoko quickly found her sizes for the bra and panties and within a few minutes had marched to the register, paid, and was exiting the store-

"Motoko-han!"

"...Big sister!" Motoko almost *squeaked* in surprise, coming face to face with her sister, Tsuruko, and Shippu perched on her shoulder.

"Kue!" Shippu chirped pleasantly in greeting.

"Sister in law!" Kanako smiled, stepping around from just behind Tsuruko. The black silk dress clad girl bowed.

Kuro meowed happily in greeting, the black cat expertly perched on Kanako's shoulders. "Kuro-chan…" Motoko managed in greeting. She took in her newfound company, and remembered the shopping bag on her arm and thanked the kami that she had not been in one of those speciality lingerie shops, then she would have had a bag that would announce to all the world she was buying unmentionables.

"Oh. I see Fujinami's Department Store now has a bag advertising their new lingerie line!" Kanako beamed, looking down at the bag that Motoko had not seen the cashier put her purchases in.

"Er… ah… that is to say?" Motoko stammered, feeling the beginnings of a deep blush. "It is just printed on the bag."

"And the printing on the bag says 'containing the newest line of Ladies Intimates; now only available at Fujinami's Ladies Department' on it." Tsuruko smirked. "My, my!"

Before she knew it, Kanako was right beside her, glancing down into the bag. "Hmmhmm. Simple but cute." She looked up at Motoko. "But not black."

"Simple but cute?" Tsuruko asked, a devilish grin on her lips. "So that is where my dear brother-in-law's tastes lay."

"So… what brings you all the way down here, Big Sister… Kanako-chan? Travelling together, now?" Motoko asked looking from one to the other.

"Oh no," Kanako shook her head. "We just ran into each other outside the train station and discovered we were both here for similar purposes."

"Which is…?"

"Mother and father wish me to test Keitaro-san to chart his progress." Tsuruko replied.

"Kuro-chan is hungering for Round Two against Mecha-Tama," Kanako gave her black cat familiar a tickle underneath the feline's chin.

"Meow!" Kuro meowed very clearly, every sound enunciated.

"Kue, kue," Shippu flap-flapped his wings from his perch on Tsuruko's shoulder.

"Shippu has a dispute with Mecha-Tama as well," Tsuruko smirked.

"I understand." Motoko said slowly, exhaling as she adjusted quickly to both of her sisters now ogling inside her shopping bag. Who did not have some kind of feud with Mecha-Tama or the actual terrapin that inspired its creation?

"Underwear is the only thing you bought today, Motoko-han?" Tsuruko chuckled.

"I see that is why Big Brother is not with you right now; it would spoil *his* surprise." Kanako winked.

"It-it is not like that! I was shoe shopping but could not find anything suitable and was about to leave the store when I saw a sale!" Motoko's face burned. She did not *just* go out underwear shopping.

"So you say," Tsuruko waved her hand. "I am still surprised you decided to favor modern undergarments… you mostly hew towards tradition, as do I."

"I always thought mother and father wished to encourage us to decide on a case by case basis as individuals what parts of modernity worked for us and what parts did not work and adapt accordingly." Motoko narrowed her eyes.

Tsuruko arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Like the time you had that part-time job at that fast food restaurant? I remember how many letters you wrote mentioning how much you loathed the uniform you had to wear; let alone the food."

Motoko shuddered. "... you were not supposed to tell anyone about that."

Tsuruko threw Kanako a smile. "Not even tell a sister?"

"Fast food worker Motoko-chan?" Kanako mused. "Would not have expected that one."

Tsuruko and Kanako chuckled. Motoko groaned.

Tsuruko cleared her throat. "Now, let us speak of your apprentice and his progress."

"I am quite interested as well." Kanako nodded. "Granny and I are curious why he choose your school's style over the Urashima style or that Jeet Kwon Do his archeology professor friend favors so much."

"Ah, a lingering question over his style selection?" Tsuruko turned to Kanako.

"That," Kanako's eyes narrowed minutely, "and his switching family registries."

Tsuruko smirked. Motoko matched her sister.

"It is custom." Motoko said.

"Tell that to my parents and grandmother." Kanako looked away briefly.

"That it is." Tsuruko replied sweetly. "Men marrying into the Aoyama clan take the clan's last name."

"It is especially so when they also take up the blade under our tutelage." Motoko stated.

"I know," Kanako looked back to look at Tsuruko beside her, and Motoko in front of her. "But the family worries about the name and family's art fading."

"Think it not as a fading, but a joining together of styles," Motoko said. "Though it is not apparent to Kei-kun, his own personal style includes the Urashima arts along with what I have been teaching him."

Tsuruko clasped her hands in front of her. "Exactly what I am here to observe and test. It is time to see if he is ready to attain first dan. Now, Motoko-han," she smiled, "is there anything else you need to take care of in the city today?"

For a moment, Motoko considered telling her sister and sister-in-law that she needed to start shopping for next year's New Year's feast nine months early, then she simply sighed in resignation: "No. We might as well get this over with, your rooms are clean and the same as they were during your last shared stay before the wedding."

"I hope Shinobu-chan will not be too overwhelmed with our presence." Kanako stated lightly as the trio turned to begin the walk back towards the Hinata Inn.

"Not at all," Motoko replied pleasantly. "She is always delighted to cook for more; indeed since she started dating this Kosuke-san she is always cooking more. We need more mouths to eat it all."

"Why Motoko-han," Tsuruko giggled, "you sound just like an Innkeeper's wife. And an expectant mother. Any big announcements I should start preparing mother and father for?"

"Well, technically I am an innkeeper's wife," Motoko said, unflappable now that she had adjusted to Tsuruko and Kanako suddenly showing up while she was shopping. She smiled softly, "no big announcements yet that would require mother to start knitting little booties."

"If Onii-chan ever needs a rest so you two can spend more time on said 'big announcement', I can-" Kanako began.

"Take over the Inn? No thank you, my dear sister-in-law." Motoko finished, giving Kanako a smile to take the slight sting out of the statement.

Tsuruko laughed at the back and forth between the new sisters as they continued their journey to the Inn. She fed a cracker to Shippu perched on her shoulder as she listened to Motoko and Kanako continued to debate who should help Keitaro run the Inn. Kuro followed along, picking up the pieces Shippu intentionally gave him.

Just another day in Hinata City.

000

Keitaro Aoyama, still dressed in his sweaty work clothes, sat the basket full of freshly washed laundry on the deck. He stood up and soon began putting the wet clothes on the clothesline to dry. Ordinarily, this was Shinobu's chore, but as the petite high school resident cook/laundress of the Hinata Inn had just retrieved the clothes from the washer, the phone had rang. Keitaro had been in the kitchen to fetch a small snack of fresh fruit and water after having finished his repairs to the deck's floor boards. He answered the phone. It had been Shinobu's "friend" and study partner Kosuke Yamada. Keitaro could tell that the bluenette wanted nothing more in that moment than to talk on the phone with the boy, so Keitaro had told her he would take care of putting the laundry on the clothesline to dry.

He smiled as he started with the pants and shorts, meticulously sorting each article of clothing by resident as he put them on the clothesline, and then moved on to the shirts… then the gis and hakamas. If Kitsune's, Su, and Sara's suspicions were correct, then soon the greatest (and youngest) chef in Hinata CIty would have her first boyfriend. Keitaro had over the years become steadily more aware of the special place Shinobu held in her heart for him, and felt a measure of pride for being that figure in her life to help her figure out what she wanted in a boyfriend when the time came. Keitaro hoped that he and Motoko could answer any questions Shinobu might have about relationships; even if as they would both admit they were hardly perfect, but they had no doubt about their love. Granted, Keitaro doubted that Shinobu was thinking of inducting Kosuke into the ways of the wooden spoon brigade, but he would warn the young man to stay out of the kitchen when Shinobu was "in the zone" and dinner was fifteen minutes away.

Having finished with putting all the other articles of clothing up, Keitaro moved on to the underwear. Earlier in the day Shinobu had already washed and put everyone else's underthings up to dry, except for the Aoyama's. First his underwear went up on the line, then the simple but appealing white cotton panties that his wife and sensei wore, with their ever present white silk bow at the top of the waistband that always intrigued him when he took them off his wife-

"Hey, Keitaro, do you have a copy of Hashimoto's lecture-!" Naru's mouth gaped open from her place at the top of the stairs.

"Hi Naru, what's up?" Keitaro turned then instantly froze. "Something wrong?"

"You-you pervert-unhand-those-panties!" Naru started stalking towards Keitaro.

Keitaro gulped. "Um… this is mine and Motoko-chan's laundry, why shouldn't I hang them up?"

"Because you're a man, and those are Motoko's panties!" Naru pointed at him and then the offending cotton undergarments.

"... ah, she's my wife." Keitaro offered.

Naru nodded. "Yeah, but a woman should only be the ones to handle their own underwear!"

Keitaro sighed. "Look, I know you mean well and you're just guarding against perverts… but I am still going to put mine and my wife's laundry up to dry."

Naru sighed. "A noble sentiment, but I must punish the hands of the man who touches panties!"

Keitaro wondered how and if Naru would react if and when her and Kentaro Sakata's relationship progressed to the point that Naru being relieved of her underwear was the next logical step.

Naru rolled up her sleeves, one after the other, cracking her knuckles. "I swear I'm getting too old for this."

Keitaro sighed, turning his back and finished putting up the panties on the clothesline. "Perfect time to stop, then," he turned back to Naru and deftly side-stepped an incoming slap from Naru.

"Hey, hold still!" Naru tried to slap him again, and Keitaro somehow just avoided contact with her open hand.

"Come on, Keitaro it's just *one* slap. It's gonna hurt me a whole lot more than its gonna hurt you, pal!"

Keitaro declined to dignify that with a response.

Naru kept up her attempted smacking of Keitaro's face, and found herself getting her hand close but her friend and fellow Tokyo U student just avoiding her every time.

After about the sixth failed attempt, Keitaro smirked as Naru attempted to catch her breath for another strike. "You know," Keitaro said, "I really don't have time for this nonsense today."

"You and me both, Keitaro! But," another time her open palm just met the air that Keitaro had previously occupied, "I have to keep you in line because Motoko-chan and her kendo ways aren't gonna cut it on their own!" He now was at the top of the stairs to the deck.

"Well, it's certainly done a good job of giving you a workout," Keitaro effortlessly strode down the stairs, his ears and his other senses keeping the mental head-space Motoko and Tsuruko called "ki-sense" trained on his opponent and his eyes looking straight ahead to prevent his natural clumsiness from striking.

"Come back here!" Naru called from the top of the stairs. "Don't think you can run away!"

"What, don't think you can catch me, Naru?" Keitaro chuckled as he ran down the hallway, briefly waving to Shinobu. "Shinobu-chan, all the laundry is hanging to dry!"

"T-thank you, sempai!" The Hinata Inn's resident housekeeper and chef waved back, then immediately hugged the hallway to allow Naru plenty of room to pursue Keitaro. "Um… dinner is ready, you two!"

He ran as fast as he could, not sparing any looks back as he expertly navigated the hallways of the Inn. Every so often he could hear Naru's agitated breath as she told him to stop running and take his lumps. As Keitaro scaled the stairs that went down the first floor, he wondered if some of the words and commanding tone Naru was using was something she picked up in her student teaching. He now headed towards the hot spring entrance, briefly savoring the aroma of dinner as he passed the entrance to the kitchen.

Keitaro passed Su who was suspending herself upside down from the ceiling by use of her newest invention, anti-gravity bananas. One consumed banana would allow one to hang on the ceiling for a full hour. Keitaro, on a dare from Kitsune, had eaten one and used the resulting time on the ceiling to high-dust the wooden high beams of the Inn. Kitsune, true to her word, had agreed to give Motoko her Sherlock Holmes deer-stalker cap in return for Keitaro taking the dare in the first place.

"If you don't let me smack you I'll tell your wife you're shirking your duties as a man to take correcting for perversion!" Naru huffed behind him, getting even more winded.

"And if I refused to put her underwear up to dry, then she would have cause to punish me, and I would deserve it!" Keitaro called back as he arrived at the door outside to the hot springs. He, in a flash threw the door open and lept through the changing area and then to the rock-lined deck outside. Keitaro only just barely avoided Naru's repeated attempted blows to his head.

He turned around now, facing Naru. The brunette Tokyo U student's hair was frazzled, she was sweating, and her chest was heaving from the exertion. "I don't have all night here!" she rasped.

"Neither do I!" Keitaro called back. "Come on, Naru. Dinner's going to get cold, let this one pass."

For a moment, she seemed to consider it, then there was a glint in her eye that spoke to Keitaro of that kind of good humor she had in her kinder, gentler moments, and then that smile. "Not on your life, Keitaro, "I have my reputation to think of, you know! What would your wife say, that I'm getting soft on you?"

Keitaro shrugged, chuckling. "Is that so bad?"

Naru sighed, "maybe someday, no…"

He relaxed just a bit-

"-but not today ATOMIC PUNCH!" Naru leaned back, winded up, and was about to unleash her right-hook when-

She must have taken a quarter step forward, or something, because she suddenly found herself slipping and sliding on the rocks of the hot spring. Everytime she tried to regain her footing, or stop her forward momentum, her flailing of arms and legs only caused her to go faster skidding around as Keitaro just stood still and watched in amazement. Keitaro wondered if some kind of "black ice" phemonen was at work on the wet rocks of the hot spring, and made a mental note to ask Su later to investigate for some extra dessert.

"... Keitaro-you-fiend!" Naru blurted as she finally skidded into a bathing bucket, sending her and the bathing bucket tumbling ass over tea-kettle into the hot springs with a resounding splash.

Keitaro stopped, looking on as Naru resurfaced, soaking wet, and steaming in more than ways than one. "You okay, Naru?"

"Better than you will be when I get out of here!"

Sighing, Keitaro shook his head. "Look, why don't we take a raincheck on this punishment until I really do something that deserves it?"

"Or… you can take up your issues with my Big Brother with me, Naru-chan." Kanako said with Kuro's accompanying meow.

"Kanako-chan!" Keitaro spun around. "I didn't know you were down from Kyoto, how's Mom and Dad?"

"Pissed at you, Big Brother."

Keitaro chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, tell me what else is new."

Utterly silent, Naru sat in the hot spring.

"What did he do this time that his wife and teacher cannot correct, Naru-chan?" Kanako asked sternly.

Naru's eyebrow twitched. One of her great annoyances in life since becoming acquainted with Kanako was Keitaro's little sister habit of calling her in such a familiar way.

"Hmm?" Kanako prompted, behind her and Keitaro, Kitsune, Su, Shinobu, joined her along with the other two Aoyamas; Motoko and Tsuruko.

"He was handling panties!"

"A panty thief," Kitsune laughed, "Kei baby you gettin' nostalgic?"

"Just putting up mine and Motoko's wet laundry to dry," Keitaro explained with a small smile. "Naru took issue with that."

"And she ended up in the drink over it," Kitsune narrated outloud for herself and for those who had just arrived with her.

Motoko shook her head. "Naru-sempai, I have stopped chasing him around, so should you!"

"Well," Naru groused, "that's only because you two fell in love and got married! I only chase because he always runs away!"

"I only run away when you want to slap me for some silly reason," Keitaro replied, with a hint of annoyance. "I don't mind being punished when I deserve it; but I'm through with it when I don't deserve it or it is because of some misunderstanding."

Tsuruko soft-clapped. Shippu made a kaw-kaw sound.

"Testifies, Kay-Taros, Testifies!" Su hopped up and down.

"You tell her, sempai!" Shinobu nodded, smiling.

Kanako, paying no heed to her own clothed state, walked into the hot spring and waded over to Naru. She held out her hand. "Come Naru-chan," Kanako said with a small smile, "say you are sorry to Big Brother."

Naru continued to sit in sullen silence for a moment.

"Naru-chan," Kitsune prompted. "It's time to put this to bed, isn't it?"

Soaking wet in the hot water, her clothes sticking to her, and her hair an absolute mess, Naru finally gave in. "Okay I'm sorry, Keitaro!"

"I'm proud of you, Naru-chan," Kitsune chuckled, as she went over to wade into the hot spring waters to join Kanako in helping fish the exhausted Naru out of the water.

"Apology accepted, Naru," Keitaro said simply, smiling a bit with a nod.

As Kitsune and Kanako started to help Naru out of the water, the soaked brunette turned to Kanako. "I think my hand-to-hand is getting a bit rusty."

"A bit, Naru-chan?" Kitsune teased.

Kanako smiled. "I would be happy to spar with you tomorrow."

Naru only nodded numbly in acceptance.

Keitaro smiled, he then turned to bow formally to Tsuruko, who returned it, and then he embraced his wife. "Welcome home, Motoko-chan."

"Thank you, husband. I see you are handling things here well today."

"Awh," Keitaro grinned, "sometimes it's all in the feet; as you taught me."

Motoko grinned back and soon she and Keitaro melted into a quick, but passionate kiss on the lips.

000

"So," Tsuruko stood before Keitaro on the deck, "while I do so enjoy socializing with my little sister, brother-in-law, and all of your friends… and for Shippu to test his mettle against Mecha-Tama, I *am* here to chart your progress."

Keitaro bowed slowly, now attired in his gi and hakama. Motoko's mother and father had told him that this would be the case soon after they had returned from their short honeymoon. He was due for the first assessment that a student of God's Cry Kendo would have to endure. This was different from a standard Kendo Dojo assessment; Motoko had already as his sensei advanced Keitaro through the Kyu ranks. Keitaro, despite his occasional cluelessness and clumsiness, took well to the basics of the kendoka; the real question was how well would he handle the more rigorous aspects of what God's Cry taught to its students who had the talent and were ready. Motoko had told Keitaro that even if he did not pass this assessment, he would be retested at a time and place of her and Tsuruko's choosing that he would not be privy to; and his regular kendo training would continue on as it had before. If he passed this assessment, then they would start to introduce him to both more combat-centered tactics and training, as well as cultivation of his warrior spirit; his ki.

'But no katana-swinging for a long time to come,' Keitaro thought with resignation as Tsuruko ceremoniously removed her katana, Ikazuchi in its scabbard and set it on a bench a safe distance away, she retrieved two bokkens from the bench, and walked over to place one beside where Keitaro stood at attention.

Motoko watched, also dressed in her gi and hakama, assessing Keitaro's form as he bowed again to her sister, then knelt properly to pick up the bokken.

"This assessment will be judged simply in how you handle yourself in open sparring," Tsuruko said through a thin smile. "I will decide when the match is ended and the result." She turned to Motoko. "Is it agreed?"

"Agreed," Motoko nodded curtly.

Tsuruko inhaled for half a second. "Begin!"

Unlike his and Motoko's regular practices with sparring, with the sensei taking the subordinate position to the student, Tsuruko went on the offensive, charging towards Keitaro's left side and landing a strike on his hip with a solid whap. Keitaro winced in pain as he backed off, bringing the bokken up to meet Tsuruko's second stroke with a *crack* that echoed around them on the deck.

Tsuruko only acknowledged Keitaro's successful defense with a smirk as she continued attacking him with her wooden weapon, causing Keitaro to alternate between blocking and back-stepping around the deck as Tsuruko continued her relentless assault.

"Backing off and running away will not solve every problem you encounter, kohei." Tsuruko said as she effortlessly landed a slight hit to Keitaro's shoulder. Light hit in that it did not break any bones.

"Ah!" Keitaro exclaimed, the pain radiating through his body before his healing ability and the mental focusing techniques Motoko had been teaching him kicked in.

"Who says I run away?" Keitaro said through gritted teeth as he hopped over a stool, fairly skillfully.

"Merely observing what I saw today, brother-in-law. Entertaining though it was."

"I won, didn't I?" Keitaro replied.

"Well," Tsuruko effortlessly allowed one hand to continue attacking Keitaro while the other touched its index finger to her chin ever so lightly. "It is debatable."

Keitaro winced again as another strike from Tsuruko's bokken met his other shoulder, and he just barely ducked a swipe to his head. He circled around Tsuruko as fast as he could, dodging and parrying her strikes as he went. "What is not debatable is using your terrain to your advantage!"

"Terr-" Tsuruko started to say when she realized that her left foot, which had expected to firmly but daintily place itself on the deck only met thin air. She blinked. Tsuruko's foot met the first step just as Keitaro took advantage of her brief distraction to land two strikes to each shoulder and then one to her bokken-clenched fist, causing her to wince in shock and pain as she dropped the wooden practice weapon. Keitaro kicked it away across the deck, and trained his bokken at Tsuruko's neck from her slightly stooped position with one foot on the stair and one foot on the staircase's landing.

"See?" Keitaro rasped. "Terrain."

Tsuruko smiled. "Very good, kohei." She nodded ever so slightly to her left.

Keitaro realized he had let his guard down a quarter of a second before feeling Motoko's own bokken at his neck.

"You did well, kohei." Motoko spoke as if her voice was rolling thunder coming down from the mountains of Kyoto. "Now we will see how you do against two opponents."

"Um, what?" Keitaro gulped.

With her free hand, Motoko tossed Tsuruko's bokken back to her sister. Motoko rounded around Keitaro, her wooden sword still trained at his neck as Tsuruko righted her stance and the Aoyama sisters backed off towards the center of the deck; both holding smiles on their faces as they beckoned him. "But, this isn't a fair fight…" Keitaro commented.

"There will be times as a warrior when you will be forced to face unequal odds in a battle!" Motoko said sharply.

"Your lesson begins now, kohei." Tsuruko giggled.

Motoko and Tsuruko rushed at him then. Tsuruko took the left, and Motoko the right, pelting Keitaro's upraised bokken with a dizzying array of strikes and strokes. So fast his opponents were, that Keitaro was starting to feel micro-splinters hitting him. He landed a slight hit to both Motoko's and Tsuruko's sword-hand when they got close enough after a close hit that Keitaro dodged. The Kendo Sisters of Kyoto kept Keitaro rounding around the deck he had just repaired, trying to make him either stumble, lose his bokken, or just yield.

Keitaro yelped as he felt one swift crack on one hip and then the other. His gi sticking to his chest, caked with sweat, Keitaro knew that he would soon have to yield if he did not think of something. He reassured himself that he had acquitted himself well, and had done his absolute best. As the last of his endurance was about to reach its limits, he saw that Motoko and Tsuruko were now standing just a bit further apart from each other than how they had arrayed themselves earlier in their battle with him.

'I will bend like a reed in the wind,' A part of Keitaro's mind echoed back to him.

Keitaro blocked one strike with his bokken, then another, then analytically noted as the wooden training sword cracked and splintered cleanly through about half-way up its length. While surprised and briefly panicking in his usual way, another part of him smiled. He knew what to do now.

Tsuruko and Motoko noted the breaking of Keitaro's bokken, and both of them acknowledged simultaneously in their minds that the match would end in defeat for Keitaro; though he had fought valiantly, and both were proud of him. They were about to lower their own bokkens a bit when they saw Keitaro raise his free hand before him and darted forward between them and caught the broken shard of wood in his bared palm. Now armed in both hands Keitaro threw every last ounce of strength, speed, and agility in taking advantage of the opening that the two Aoyama sisters had inadvertently created, and their momentary distraction in thinking their opponent soundly defeated.

Keitaro, in one stroke from each wooden weapon cracked down on Motoko and Tsuruko's sword hands; causing both women to yelp from the pain and the shock and for their weapons to drop from their hands. Just as he was about to dart past them like the world's fastest cat, Keitaro threw the remnants of his bokken away ahead of him with all of his might, the destroyed training weapon sailing end over end to land on the sloping roof of the Inn, then it began its roll down the roof tiles to land in the rain gutter below. Keitaro crouched in his run, just as Motoko and Tsuruko were starting to recover from their shock and pain; but the two raven haired sisters were just a bit too late as Keitaro was now running away with *both* of their bokkens in his hands.

He turned around once he was a safe distance away, facing both of his opponents with a bokken in each hand. Keitaro knew his form was more than likely off while wielding two swords, but he honestly did not care in that moment.

Motoko looked over to Tsuruko, and the elder Aoyama sister nodded with a small smile. Motoko smiled, broader and warmer in response.

"We yield, kohei. Well done." Motoko bowed deeply, and Keitaro returned it.

"Welcome to the first dan of God's Cry Kendo, Keitaro-san." Tsuruko smiled, very warm and proud.

Keitaro and Tsuruko bowed deeply to each other again.

Looking up, Motoko called out: "Well, sister-in-law, what say you?"

From behind him and above him, at some distance Keitaro heard Kanako reply loudly: "I see my Keitaro-onii-chan is combining the Urashima school abilities with his chosen path of God's Cry school of Kendo. But, I do see that he indeed owes more to the Aoyama branch, so any fool should be able to see why he has chosen a new family name."

Kuro, perched on his mistress' shoulder, meowed his approval.

Keitaro turned around, Kanako stood at the top of the roof beyond the deck. Keitaro bowed towards his sister. "I thank you, Kanako-chan. Please tell Granny and mother and father what you have seen."

Kanako jumped down to join him on the deck in three short, skillful hops. The black-clad Urashima took a deep breath. "It still will not be easy," she cracked a smile, "but I can be persistent."

He laughed, and brother and sister shared a short hug before Kanako bowed to Motoko and then to Tsuruko.

"I see Keitaro-san has learned much, Motoko-han," Tsuruko placed a finger to her lips. "Tell me, have you two been combining the exercises in the marriage manual to augment your Kendo training?"

Motoko's mouth gaped open briefly before she composed herself, but she was unable to hide a light blush.

Keitaro, blushed deeply, chuckled nervously and by habit scratched the back of his sweaty head.

A devilish smile formed on Tsuruko's aristocratic visage. "Especially the 'Crash of the Waves'?"

A full blush now from Motoko and Keitaro.

"Hmm." Kanako looked from her brother to her sister-in-law. "I see. Most interesting. I shall definitely have to report this to Granny as well as to mother and father.."

Kuro purred and meowed his agreement with his mistress' decision as he went from Kanako's right shoulder to her left.

"Ah! No need!" Motoko waved her arms briefly. "It is just simply general fitness information for couples while exercising together."

Keitaro could only hold his silence, but his blush deepened.

"Dear me, Motoko-han," Tsuruko replied sweetly. "You can tell your sister-in-law what that really means."

Kanako smiled, not unlike a cat having caught its prey. "Yes, please enlighten me, dear sister-in-law."

"Well, ah.. Um…." Motoko's mind raced. Would they tell Keitaro where they met her earlier today just outside the department store? She had to end this line of questioning quick before her husband had a nosebleed and she herself died of embarrassment. Motoko had learned quickly after her and Keitaro had become "official" as both sensei and kohei and as a couple that Tsuruko and Kanako fed off of each other when it came to innuendo and probing questions about her relationship with Keitaro.

Keitaro, picking up on his wife and sensei's distress, noted something out of the ordinary about his sister in that moment. "Ah, Kanako-chan?!"

"Yes?" Kanako looked over at him, curious.

"Where did Kuro-chan go?"

Kanako's shoulder seemed to flinch, then she looked around to her left and right and back to the roof where she had stealthily observed the sparring match. "... I told Kuro-chan not to pursue Mecha-Tama until I *said* so."

"Indeed," Tsuruko remarked. "If your Kuro-chan is gone, then that means he has more than likely rendezvoused with Shippu and Tama-chan to confront that metal terrapin..."

Motoko sighed, a bit more deeply than usual. "We must find those animals immediately. Rules have not even been agreed to for a proper re-match duel."

Kanako and Tsuruko nodded in agreement.

Keitaro took a breath. "I'll go see if I can find Su-chan, maybe we can prevent them from starting a fight before all hell breaks loose and-"

"-we will have more than just deck boards to repair!" Motoko finished.

"Just like an Innkeeper's wife," Tsuruko smirked.

Kanako sighed.

000

Kuro, Shippu, and Tama-chan looked around a corner of the stone masonry of the building's wall in the side-yard of the Hinata Inn. This particular part of the Inn's grounds was dense with foliage that Keitaro kept well-trimmed, but the various flora that had grown and flourished over the decades could never truly be tamed. Upon Kaolla Su's arrival at the Inn, she had only added to it as a kind of botanical testing station to augment who knew what went on inside her personal "Jungle Room." Of course, Princess Su's Jungle Room would simply put to shame the King of Rock N' Roll's Jungle Room from wherever place he was watching from.

Could never truly be tamed was an apt description as the Team Craning-Cat-Half-Shell (or TCCHS for short, as Kanako dubbed them after enjoying glass or two of red wine) had met in the Hinata's kitchen, underneath the small kitchen table when each of their masters (not applicable in Tama-chan's case) were briefly distracted. After the secret greeting was made (secret because nobody else had ever seen it) the three set about tracking down Mecha Tama. Shippu's surveillance had tracked the mechanical monstrosity to the side-yard where the robot was using the sun-beams from the breaks in the trees above to recharge his batteries while waiting for either the next escapade that Su dreamed up, or just plain malfunctioning again. But, ever since its first encounter with Kuro and Shippu, and despite Su's best efforts at the behest of everyone else who lived at the Hinata Inn, Su was unable to modify Mecha Tama's programming to stop the overarching directive in its operating system to always hunt out new tasty treats for its princess. Thus, in moments when they were wandering the Hinata's grounds and not in their master's presence, (or in Tama-chan's case, at least once or twice a week just flying around) they always had to be careful.

Except for today, that is. Today, the three agreed amongst themselves underneath the kitchen table, they would take the battle to Mecha Tama.

Shippu, nodded with a squawk to Kuro, who purred to Tama-chan; Tama-chan hovered in the air. Their quarry was in sight. Just behind the large tree ahead of them. The three broke around the corner, almost completely silently they flew (or in Kuro's case, ran) around the tree, jumped into the air, and found themselves dumbfounded by the sight before them…

...sunning his shiny metal skin in the sun-beams, Mecha-Tama lounged beeping and blooping as he munched on a large stalk of bamboo.

Shippu squaked. Just what the hell was this?

Kuro concurred. Was this a trap?

Tama-chan waved to Mecha-Tama-

-who waved right back.

The three shrugged simultaneously.

Su suspended herself down from the branch of the tree above. "Hellos tasties! I was no ables to tell Mecha-Tama nots to hunts; but I was ables to makes him intos a vegan!"

The three pets gaped their mouths (and in Shippu's case, beak) wide open.

Su tittered. "But I'm not!" The MolMolian teenager licked her lips.

The three animals took this as their cue to retreat.

Su continued giggling, with a hint of mad glee as she went back up into the tree to continue construction of the tree house she had in mind as a summer gift for Sara and Mei.

000

"Well, that one ended quickly," Keitaro commented as he slid the door shut to his and Motoko's room. He turned around, and took her hands in his, rubbing gently as was his way whenever his practice strikes landed there. "Shippu, Kuro, and Tama-chan all decided to just go to the hot spring together."

Motoko shuddered a bit at the memory of seeing Tama lounging in the spring. But she smiled at feeling Keitaro's gently rubbing hands upon hers, sometimes she imagined that she could almost *feel* the Urashima healing arts flowing into her when her husband did this. "Indeed, and they both refused to relate what happened when they went up against Mecha-Tama."

"And I checked Mecha-Tama," Keitaro mused. "He was just recharging." He shrugged. "Seems everything is okay around the Inn for now," he smiled, "so how was shopping in town today?"

Motoko's cheeks colored a bit. "I believe I need your advice with something."

Keitaro nodded. "Sure, what is it? Is it as kohei or husband?"

"Both…"

He nodded slowly, wracking his brain to try and figure out what it could be. "Is it about how many shoes you think a samurai should own?" Keitaro recalled that his wife had frequently gotten into playful arguments with Kitsune and Naru about Motoko's lack of diversified footwear. Motoko had maintained that the few shoes she owned were sufficient for the weather conditions or occasion needed. Kitsune and Naru argued that Motoko was as boring as a schoolmarm. Motoko had simply leveled a look at Naru and asked the brunette who was it in the house whose dream it was to be a school teacher? Naru retorted that at least she was stylish.

Keitaro smiled at his beautiful wife. "I think you're wonderful just how you are; but don't feel guilty if you want another pair of shoes or two. And don't let what Kitsune or Naru say affect your choice."

Motoko smiled, nodding slowly. "I thank you, husband. Now I ask that as kohei you practice patience as your sensei takes a few moments to change out of her gi and hakama."

Keitaro nodded as Motoko went behind the changing screen she had installed in their room just before they had married. While they had no problem being naked around each other, there were times that they both preferred changing clothes with some amount of privacy. This was one such occasion, and Keitaro thought nothing of it… that is, until he caught sight of his wife, blinked and blinked again as he saw her now clad in the most alluring thing imaginable outside of her wedding kimono.

Standing before him now Motoko stood barefoot on the polished wooden of their room, her arms behind her and a soft rosy blush on her face. She was wearing underwear… no… lingerie.

'Say something, dumbass.' The more tactful part of his brain jabbed the denser part.

"... you look stunning, my wife." Keitaro said firmly, smiling as his eyes dancing about the splendor in front of him.

"Thank you, husband." Motoko smiled. Her brow furrowed. "Do you… think this is too extravagant for a wise and frugal kendoka to own?"

Keitaro shook his head from side to side. "No! Of course not, you are absolutely stunning in those! Who told you this was too extravagant?"

"Well," Motoko's lips hinted at a smirk that bore a passing resemblance to the famous Tsuruko Aoyama smirk, "I believe *I* would have said so if my younger self could speak to me now."

"A lot has changed hasn't it?" Keitaro mused.

"That it has."

Keitaro gazed at his wife, taking in the sight before him. Ever since she exited from behind the changing screen, he felt his own blush, the heat of his love, and the stirring of his desire for her. He wet his lips, "You look stunning, Motoko-chan." Without thinking, reacting on instinct Keitaro hitched forward from where he sat on the floor, taking a closer look at his wife.

Motoko stood there, blushing furiously, but enjoying the attention feasted upon her by Keitaro. She stood in her white and red silk bra and panties, the white parts smooth to the touch and of a soft inviting quality that was hardly thin. The red, frilled part bordering the hems of her panties and the sides of the bra cups supporting her bountiful bosom (even the bra straps had little lacey frills), and to match everything together the two red silk bows in the center of her bound fruits and at the top of her panties.

"Can you… turn around, Motoko-chan? Please..?" Keitaro said, with just a hint of breathlessness.

She smiled and obediently turned around, slowly turning around and showing Keitaro that the red frilly detailing on the panties also lovingly accentuating the curves of Motoko's bottom and also elegantly concealed the mechanics of the bra hooks. But most of all, and the feature that caused Keitaro's blood to pound into his ears as he blushed even deeper was the front of the panties which he could see even better now that Motoko had taken another step closer to him during her rotation, and he himself had hitched forward even more without realizing it.

Beneath the red ribbon that stood guard over the top of the panties was red frilly lace-work that flared like the petals of a flower in an elegant upside down triangle that left an opening just so; like an gossamer gate standing open just a notch so a brave warrior could return to his castle. Beneath that gate, and Keitaro fought a nosebleed, he could see the faint, well-maintained forestation of his wife's flower.

Keitaro could not take take it anymore. He had to hold her in his arms and kiss her. He stood up, planting his foot firmly on the floor and hoisted himself up-

-only to find that he had over polished the floorboards just a bit the last time he had cleaned their room.

"Ack!" Keitaro got out before he attempted to correct with his feet, and succeeded in not colliding full force into Motoko, but instead sliding into his wife, and knocking them both to the floor.

"Oof!" Motoko got out as she found herself face to face with the man she loved, on the floor, wearing revealing lingerie.

Keitaro kissed her, fiercely, with a fiery devotion. He hummed her name as he kissed and told her he loved her.

"I love you too, husband." Motoko said back to him with a bit more success in the midst of returning his kiss.

"... I want you… I want to make love to you," Keitaro whispered as he kissed her again, his tongue darting and lathing Motoko's lips with attention. His hands reached up to run through her raven hair, already he could feel his instinctive reaction whenever he held Motoko in his arms. Keitaro hitched forward, though still dressed in his gi and hakama, he felt Motoko already running her hands underneath his gi, her hands running along his bare chest, fingers caressing his nipples.

Keitaro's hands worked their way down, touching Motoko's shoulders, then feeling the soft frills and silk of her bra. He looked down, "you look so beautiful in this…" his hands ran over the bra cups, firmly touching her bosom as his thumbs felt her nipples harden underneath the material. He smiled, "and I love the cute little bow," his fingers played with the red bow between her breasts.

She moaned as her husband's hands fondled her through the bra, she could feel the heat rising within her, radiating from her stomach outward… downward. Almost in response, through the material of Keitaro's hakama, she could feel him harden against her thigh. Keitaro began to assist her in removing his gi; easy enough as it was soon resting on their kotatsu. Keitaro's hands, once relieved of clothing, returned to caressing Motoko's stomach, pausing for a moment to lock hands with her, squeezing, their wedding rings touching.

Despite the considerable room afforded a man in a hakama, Keitaro had come to the conclusion that his was entirely too tight on him, his hands reluctantly left their position joined with Motoko's with another squeeze, and then they started to unfasten the traditional garment. Motoko's more skillful fingers assisted him as she kissed him hard, moaning deeply into his mouth. With some rustling and briefly awkward moves, soon Keitaro was left to only his white boxer shorts as he embraced Motoko again, raising himself up as they lay on the floor, as he luxuriated in the scent of her hair.

She could feel him. His aroused manhood poking out of his boxers, resting against her lower stomach, the analytical part of Motoko's mind noted the bit of moist dew from Keitaro that touched her flesh. At first, she thought they would soon be one, after he nibbled on her ear and whispered in that way she told him she liked so much, when…

Keitaro leaned back a bit, his hand enjoying the little frills that adorned the bra straps, then dancing along her side, tickling just a bit until they met the little bow at the top of her silk panties, circled there lazily, then went down to the lacey gate, he smiled as he looked up into her eyes, then his fingers parted the red lace gate and found her pearl.

Motoko gasped loudly, she was already wet as her back arched, and Keitaro's ministrations just added to her arousal. "You look so great in these…" Keitaro whispered, "I love you so much, Motoko-chan…"

His other hand joined in the sensuous treatment as first one finger, then two fingers brought waves and waves of pleasure to Motoko. She moaned even louder, but she did hear what her husband said, a naughty, mischievous idea came to her.

"...why not keep them on then?"

Keitaro blinked. Every other time they had made love it had been completely in the nude. This was new. But as he felt himself stiffen even more, very enticing.

"O-okay…" Keitaro agreed.

"But you keep *yours* on too," Motoko hummed, grinning through her enjoyment of her husband's attentions.

Keitaro only nodded, he had to take her now or he would finish alone from the lovely vision before him, her scent, how she felt on his fingers, and also the wonderful images her idea had given him.

"I.. I want to be inside you," he raised himself up, kissing her hotly again, still keeping a finger on her pearl. "Now, Motoko-chan! Please…"

"Since you asked so nicely, husband," Motoko adjusted how she lay on the floor, spreading her legs to welcome him.

Wordlessly, Keitaro adjusted himself, and with a shudder that nearly caused him to go over the edge as his manhood graced the lacey gate of his wife's panties, he slid into her tight, wet entrance.

"Ah! Oh!" Motoko moaned as she felt Keitaro fill her. She heard him gasp in response, Keitaro held himself still for a moment as he kissed her again, but slower this time, letting his tongue enjoy and play with her lips and tongue as she met his dance. With almost excruciating pleasure, Keitaro began to move within her. Slow, deliberate, and controlled motions at first, but steadily picking up as the couple's hands and arms ran over each other's backs and arms. Loving moans and groans started to fill their room as they made love.

"Motoko-chan!… My wife! My wonderful… patient… sensei! Loving…. Wife!" Keitaro uttered as he moved within her, increasing his pace. He said those words often to her since their first time making love shortly after they were married.

"Kei-kun…. Dearest husband!" Motoko remembered a bit from the marriage manual. What was it called again? The Thrash of the Waves? No matter what its name was in the book, Motoko remembered the relevant passage and illustration well enough; with or without Tsuruko's extensive commentary.

Motoko smiled to herself as he felt herself tighten, and also grow wetter around her husband. It was tempting to just lay back and let nature take its course, especially from the speed of Keitaro's grunts and breathing, he was close now, but she had other ideas. With an expert move, Motoko clenched her bottom, causing *all* of her muscles to tighten, and eliciting another ecstatic moan from Keitaro, then she placed both of her palms on the floor and quickly flipped them over, she rose up…

"Motoko-chan…!" Keitaro grounded out in pleased surprise as he instinctively hitched himself upward to attempt to deepen the heated connection between them. Motoko making certain they were still connected; husband and wife, they were. She moaned as she arched her back, moving a bit up and down, then she reached down to push Keitaro's shoulders down, so that he lay flat, one of her hands guiding his hand to where they were connected, where his brave samurai was entering her castle gate, to play amongst the petals of her flower, her wifely garden, and her hidden pearl.

Keitaro got the hint quickly, and resumed his finger lavishing his wife's moist valley with loving, skillful attention. His other hand went up to run over her muscular stomach, her sides, and shoulders until they caressed her cheeks, each one in turn, then found their favorite home in Motoko's raven hair.

As her husband's fingers found their pearl again, Motoko felt herself clench around him, this time the moan came from both of them as Keitaro recalled his own study of the marriage manual. In particular Keitaro recalled the position Motoko was using and changed the rhythm of his movements up into her; so that Motoko's clenches around him worked in concert with his thrusts. Motoko continued clenching her bottom around her husband, and increasing her movements on top of him. Sometimes up and down, but also side to side, rocking, and rolling upon his hips as he attempted to keep up with her underneath her while teasing her with his fingers. The waves of pleasure unleashed from Keitaro's actions underneath her only spurred Motoko to go faster and faster… clenching, unclenching her bottom in time around him as he thrusted.

The Crash of the Waves met Keitaro then.

Keitaro moaned her name and then something unintelligible. He finished quickly, but intensely as he spent his seed deep within Motoko as the couple decided to just keep going with their motions (hips and fingers) until they were exhausted or someone dared complain. A part of Motoko almost wished for that to happen. How dare someone raise objection to a samurai of the Aoyama clan teaching her apprentice about muscle control, coordination, and endurance? That her apprentice was also her husband opened up so many new avenues for cultivation of the warrior spirit… this part of Motoko's mind, proud and triumphant continued as, after a blissful while, the Aoyama's successfully rode the Crash of the Waves until she arched her back up sharply against Keitaro as her husband wiggled his fingers and manipulated his thumb in a kind of half-circle that caused Motoko's entire awareness to erupt in a glowing warmth that spread outward from where Keitaro's fingers were all throughout her being.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Motoko came down from the wave. Keitaro marveling at every second of it.

"I love you!" Keitaro huskily whispered to her. "Thank you," he always expressed his deep gratitude to her after they made love.

"Hmmm… you are welcome, Kei-kun! I love you, too."

Soon, the two of them had collapsed on each other, they shifted their position on the floor so that Motoko could enfold Keitaro in her arms. This was her favorite thing to do after they made love, since she was taller than he was, it made holding him close her favorite way to luxuriate after making love.

She dozed lightly for a bit. Keitaro actually fell asleep. Motoko reminded herself to thank Tsuruko, and also to launder and dry the panties herself since Shinobu would either ask questions about the scent and the stains or just blush and stammer whenever Motoko or Keitaro entered the room for a few days. A devilish, teasing part of Motoko also hoped that Naru would walk in while she was laundering and/or drying the lingerie, just to see the brunette's reaction. But most of all, Motoko wanted to ensure that this lingerie set was something special. Just between them.

She smiled, about to join her husband in a light nap…

… her mobile phone's text message notification sounded. And sounded. Billy Idol's rendition of "To Be A Lover" filled the room. When had she added that? Oh yes, it was after she overheard it at a karaoke bar with Keitaro from another room.

Keitaro stirred. "... Um…?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Just a moment, husband," Motoko sighed as she reluctantly disengaged from Keitaro and crawled over to Keitaro's desk, where she left her phone. She silenced the reminder, and opened the message in the phone's Inbox.

[Enjoy the Crash of the Waves, Motoko-han? Not to worry, I took everyone out for beef bowls and sake to give you two some time to… practice.]

Motoko sighed. She should have known.

000

Keitaro sat at the kitchen table as he sipped on some green tea, before him was a marked calendar; the Inn's maintenance schedule with various notations that told Keitaro when he either had school obligations, kendo training, or a special event. It was early, he was up to escort his sister-in-law to the train station as the only train to Kyoto on that day was very early (the 7:00 am sharp) or very late (10:00 pm, for real) and Tsuruko wanted to be home for Mitsuru and their son as soon as possible. This morning, Tsuruko had joined him and Motoko for morning practice, and while rigorous the session took on a relaxing, almost tranquil feel as the sun slowly rose in the eastern sky.

With Motoko's high school career rapidly coming to an end, she was busy this morning interviewing underclassmen in Reika Girls High School's kendo club to see who she, with agreement from her instructors, would recommend to become the new captain of the school's kendo team. She had wished her sister a warm goodbye, with more than a small blush on her face, and given Keitaro a passionate embrace and kiss before donning her school uniform and heading off to catch her train.

He marked off the deck sounding and check from its place two weeks ahead on the calendar, he already had done that yesterday. Keitaro flipped ahead six months and wrote in the rescheduled date for the deck check. Keitaro sipped his tea, his mind wandering back to the wonderful evening he had had with his wife. He blushed. Not for the first time and definitely not the last, he silently thanked the Kami that the fates had allowed him and Motoko to be together.

"Good morning, Keitaro," Naru yawned as she came into the kitchen, she was dressed in her business attire; navy blue dress slacks with a white blouse, the same color of vest and a simple hat to match.

"Good morning, Naru-chan," Keitaro sipped his tea, briefly fumbling in his pocket for his mobile phone. He checked the time, Tsuruko told him she would be down and ready to leave by 6:15. It was 6:11. He smiled briefly as Naru fumbled around in the fridge for the packed bento box she had made herself for lunch the night before after she recovered from her defeat.

"I swear, these student teaching days are going to be the death of me," she muttered as she retrieved her lunch. "At least the school year is almost over. Is Kanako-chan leaving this morning too?"

Keitaro shook his head in the negative. "She's going to stay for a few more days."

"Good," Naru started to walk towards the doorway. "She promised to teach me a few moves." She looked back. "Say, Keitaro…"

"Yes? What is it?"

Naru looked down at the floor for a bit, then returned her gaze to meet his. "I'm sorry again about yesterday."

Keitaro smiled. "Again, apology accepted."

Naru gave a short smile back before she turned with a backwards wave. "See you later tonight, tell Tsuruko-sama I said safe travels and thanks for the beefbowl."

"You got it. Have a good day, Naru-chan." Keitaro nodded, waved, and returned to finish his tea and then put the maintenance calendar away.

Once he was done with that, he turned around and found Tsuruko standing in the doorway to the kitchen holding her light travel bag and Shippu slumbering peacefully on her shoulder. "Good morning again, brother-in-law, I am ready."

Keitaro smiled, blushing a tinge again as he remembered what Motoko had told him about the text message Tsuruko had sent her. "Well, I better get you down to the train station, don't want you missing the Kyoto Express."

Tsuruko chuckled. "Hardly the express, it takes so long. I really should ask Su-chan to build some kind of flying contraption."

"I would strongly advise against that, sister-in-law."

000

They walked along the sidewalk that led to the Hinata City central train station where the various high-speed lines stopped on various times and days of the week. Keitaro told Tsuruko that Naru wished her a good trip home and thanked her for the beef bowl, news which Tsuruko happily received, and she was genuinely surprised at hearing that Naru apologized again to Keitaro about what had happened on the deck the previous afternoon.

"Seems Narsuegawa-san is maturing more and more every day," Tsuruko laughed, with genuine warmth.

"Her actually dating Sakata-san seems to have helped her with her rougher…" Keitaro fumbled for the right word, "edges."

"That is good. You know," Tsuruko smirked, "I knew from the first moment I met you that you were going to be Motoko-han's husband."

Keitaro stopped. "Really?"

Tsuruko stopped too. The wide sidewalk was empty where they were with no one else around as the first commuter train bound for Tokyo had already left and the next one was scheduled for just after the express to Kyoto. Hinata City was still, for the most part, asleep.

"Yes, I did," Tsuruko continued after considering her words for a bit. She looked into his eyes. Shippu continued sleeping on her shoulder. "I could tell you were struggling with a great decision in your soul in regards to your feelings for Narsuegawa-san." She smiled. "I could also tell when the whole business with myself holding you and Motoko-han to the marriage promise was brought up; you both actually considered it."

Keitaro nodded slowly, reflecting on both the pain of those times but also the positives.

"I also realized once you two had won; that while I would allow things to return to the way they were with your pursuit of Narsuegawa-san and her being unable or unwilling to sort out her feelings for you, I resolved to make my case to Motoko-han that the battle is not over for your heart until she is actually sitting at the wedding and you are up there marrying a woman who is not her." Tsuruko chuckled. "I could also tell that you three needed some more time to mature, as well, and I hoped that with some more time the truth would reveal itself between the three of you."

"It did, Tsuruko-san-"

"Sister-in-law, please," Tsuruko corrected.

Keitaro smiled in acceptance.

"Fortunately," Tsuruko continued. "Narsuegawa realized before you left to study in America that she wanted a big brother and little sister relationship from you. Something she never had before; and she was confused over those feelings. When I read the letter from Motoko-han mentioning that, I wrote back to tell her to be your friend, take an interest in your work around the Inn; be around to listen to you and talk to you." She grinned, remembering. "It took some work, but she eventually took my advice when she saw the truth in *her* heart… and *your* heart."

"Thank you, sister-in-law." Keitaro told her, from the very depth of his soul. "Motoko-chan is everything to me. I have never felt so… right… ever in my life than knowing that I am Keitaro Aoyama."

"And the clan is the better for you joining with us, brother-in-law." Tsuruko lightly reached out to clasp his shoulder warmly.

"I do have one question." Keitaro said after a moment.

"Oh? Just one?"

He laughed. "Just for right now."

"What is it, kohei?" Tsuruko's voice took on a sing-song quality.

"If Motoko-chan and I had really lost that duel would you have forced us to marry?"

In reply, Tsuruko only graced him with *that* smile.

"I believe next time I am down here I shall have to discuss with Motoko-han the 'Conceiving Wave' technique in the marriage manual," Tsuruko commented lightly, making clear to Keitaro that she was changing the subject. "Seems you two have mastered the 'Crash of the Waves' already."

Keitaro blushed sharply. "Ah… yeah." He chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

Tsuruko's mobile phone hummed to life in the discrete pocket hidden within her gi. A ringtone reminder rendition of David Bowie's "As The World Falls Down." Tsuruko bowed, grinning broadly. "That is the reminder my husband programmed on my phone to tell me to get on the train and come home to him and our little boy."

Keitaro returned the bow. "Thank you for coming to see us, sister-in-law."

"Thank you for having me here, brother-in-law." Tsuruko gave him another smile, then turned to stride her way into the train station, Shippu still sleeping soundly on her shoulder.

Keitaro shrugged, smiling as he turned around and started to walk back home. He wondered if he or Motoko would ever get an answer to that question. He looked up, and felt the sun's rays starting to fully fill the avenue and sidewalks before him as Hinata City started to awaken from its night's slumber; he wondered if he really wanted or needed an answer. Some things were better left a mystery, after all. But he knew what was not a mystery, his peace and course in his life with his wife and sensei.

'Keitaro Aoyama,' he thought, not for the first time, but it always brought a peaceful, contented smile to his lips whenever he did. Which he did now, as he reflected both on his victory, of a kind, over Naru the previous day, and also in the duel with Tsuruko and Motoko, but also the pleasure of him and Motoko making love. 'Yeah,' he smiled as he he continued thinking; feeling on top of the world in that moment, 'that's really who I am.'

000

END Chapter 2.

AFTERWARD: Thank you all for reading this, but who also read and supported/favorited/followed the first chapter of Kendo Wife. I certainly enjoyed writing this one.. Yes, I know I frequently lift lines from "Dune" but I am firmly of the opinion that if you are going to steal, then you damn well better steal from the best. Billy Idol's cover version of the song "To Be A Lover" was always going to be the musical inspiration for this chapter, just because it sounds good and it reminds me of Keitaro and Motoko. Also, it strikes me as the kind of back-catalogue song that *might* end up near the bottom of a Japanese karaoke parlor playlist. Sometimes those old back catalogue songs are the biggest and best surprises of all for the listener.

Some may be wondering why I did not have Tsuruko answer Keitaro's question, but I simply have to go with my gut instinct and read of Tsuruko's character. In that moment, and still right now, I do not believe she would deem it necessary to give Keitaro an answer; regardless of what that answer would be. I felt Tsuruko would always want Motoko and Keitaro wondering; because those thoughts would naturally lead both to reflect on what they do have together, be thankful for that, and look forward towards their future together.

Once again, no apologies for making Tsuruko a David Bowie fan. Because, really, picture in your mind a teenage Tsuruko dancing in her room… probably not wearing very much, rocking out to the soundtrack to "Labyrinth." You're welcome.

See you all next chapter. I have ideas, but I am not sure when, where, or what the next Kendo Wife adventure will be. But yes, it does look like lime/lemon content should be expected, but still not guaranteed. Time to work on chapter two of Reforged. Finally, thanks to my co-author on Reforged Y-PenDraig for his boundless enthusiasm and steadfast support for all things Aoyama. He also pre-read this chapter and made suggestions.


End file.
